HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The incumbent team of Lou Leon Guerrero and Josh Tenorio captured 54% of the total votes cast for both Democratic and Republican candidates in Saturday’s gubernatorial primary election. Voter turnout was a modest 40%, which occurred due to several factors including the switch to motor voter registration, uncontested races for governor and delegate on the Republican ballot and a historical trend of lower turnout in years when incumbent chief executives are on the ballot.
In the Democratic race, the Leon Guerrero-Tenorio team won a resounding 62.3% of the vote, while Congressman Michael San Nicolas and running mate Sabrina Salas Matanane garnered 37.6%, largely mirroring forecasts of various preelection polls that had the sitting governor ahead 2:1.
Meanwhile, the uncontested race on the Republican side of the ballot saw 2,963 votes for former Gov. Felix Camacho and Sen. Tony Ada, which was 12.7% of the total votes cast and within 195 votes of the last Republican showing in an uncontested Republican primary in 2018.
Gov. Leon Guerrero said she and Lt. Gov. Tenorio were humbled by their victory and acknowledged “Josh and I would like everyone to know that there is a place for you in our campaign. Every single voter who cast a ballot in this election, regardless of who they voted for, and whatever their reasons for their choices, we know you will be looking for a new home in the general election. We believe we can work together to find common ground by putting Guam first in all that we do.”
She added, “We are bound together by a faith more powerful than any discord or division — our love of family, our belief in progress, and our relentless hope that the lives of our children and grandchildren will be better than our own.”
Tenorio said these “values represent who we are. They are the values of people tested by hardship and tempered by grace, a people who know, so long as we do it together, that anything wrong with Guam can be fixed by all that is right with Guam.”
“We have a strong slate of 15 Democratic senatorial candidates with very diversified backgrounds, and as Gov. Lou and I have been saying, our next Congressional delegate will be a woman, who also represents wisdom and experience, and who we need to count on to help the governor and I move our island forward,” added Tenorio.
For his part, former Gov. Camacho thanked supporters and noted “Saturday was a day of decision. A day where we marched closer to another history-making moment. By the grace of God, we will bring a new season to our island and our people. I want to reach out to our friends on the Democratic side of the table,” he continued. “Today, only one team could emerge victors and despite the sting of defeat, we know that your heart and vision was to bring good things to our island. And, we want to invite you to come and join our Camacho-Ada team.”
“As we head into the general election in November, we need all our people to unify and come together to heal the brokenness of our island. It is time to rise. It is time to dig our heels in and press on for the great things that are in store for our island,” Camacho said.
When asked what the Lou and Josh campaign is doing immediately after the primary election victory, Leon Guerrero said “Josh and I are grateful to our campaign organization for providing a structure and to our village organization for executing a solid ground game, and we all realize that our work is far from over. In the next few weeks and months we will be working hard to show those who did not vote for us that they can depend upon us to move the island forward and not leave anyone behind.”
With the release of the unofficial results, the general election season is now underway with early voting set to commence Oct. 10. As of Sunday, Congressman Michael San Nicolas had not conceded his loss in the Democratic primary election.
Guam Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio won 54% of the total votes cast in the gubernatorial primary on Saturday.
